Conventionally, monitors are in practical use that enable a two-parallax image (binocular parallax image) photographed from two viewpoints to be stereoscopically viewed by using a special instrument such as eyeglasses for stereoscopic viewing. In recent years, monitors are also in practical use that enable, by using a light beam controller such as a lenticular lens, a multi-parallax image (such as a nine-parallax image) photographed from a plurality of viewpoints to be stereoscopically viewed by naked eyes. There are also cases in which depth information of an image photographed from one viewpoint is estimated, and the estimate information is used in image processing to generate the two-parallax image or the nine-parallax image to be displayed on the stereoscopically viewable monitor.
As medical image diagnostic apparatuses, such as an X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus, and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, there are practically used apparatuses that can generate three-dimensional medical image data (volume data). Conventionally, the volume data generated by such a medical image diagnostic apparatus is subjected to various types of image processing (rendering processing) to be provided as a two-dimensional image (rendering image), and two-dimensionally displayed on a general-purpose monitor. For example, the volume data generated by the medical image diagnostic apparatus is provided by volume rendering as a two-dimensional image (volume rendering image) reflecting three-dimensional information, and two-dimensionally displayed on the general-purpose monitor.
Here, there have been cases in which troublesome setting is needed to make the stereoscopically viewable monitor display a medical image suitable for image interpretation because there are various display methods to make the stereoscopically viewable monitor display the medical image. For example, there has been a case in which troublesome setting is needed to set, for example, how much stereoscopic effect is to be given to an image to be displayed and from what angle the image is to be displayed.